The new mortgage left Hoagland out of medical debt but afraid to get sick again.

Unfortunately, he did. In 2004, Hoagland was in a health insurance waiting period on a new job when a cold turned into two days at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. This time, the bill was just over $1,200.

When a collection attorney working for Vanderbilt filed suit in 2005, Hoagland was afraid to take time off from work to show up in court. After a series of hearings, attempts to collect the debt and what Hoagland says were genuine efforts to pay it, an attorney working for Vanderbilt asked a judge to issue what's known as a body attachment. Full Story

3 Comments:

I got two benefits statement from my insurance company the other day that are glaring examples of just how badly the health care "industry" is in this nation screws the uninsured.

Each statement shows how much the provider charged my insurance company and how much my insurance company "allowed" under the agreement between them and the provider.

In the first statement, my provider billed the insurance company $680 dollars. My insurance paid $3.12!!! and according to the statement, I owe the provider NOTHING.

In the second, my provider billed the insurance company $58.50 and the insurance company paid them $6.52. Again according to the benefit statement, I owe the provider NOTHING. In other words, that's what the provider agreed to.

Every statement I receive from my insurance company runs along the same lines...the provider charges at least 4 to 5 times what the insurance company allows per their agreement and I end up paying NOTHING.

In other words, if this poor chump paid $25,000 for so-called medical services, chances are his local insurance company has an agreement with that same provider to provide the same exact services to one of its members for less than a quarter of the price they charged that man.

Of course, the provider and the insurance carrier will both whine about economies of scale, but that's all bullshit.

The cold hard truth is there is no mass production of medical services...a hospital provides the same customized service to the uninsured as it does to the insured.

Therefore, there is no legitimate reason on the face of this earth to charge the uninsured patient 4 to 10 times what they charge the insurance company for an insured patient.

THAT is precisely why any sound health care bill MUST include a national public health insurance plan that operates using interest-free capital.

qrs, I suppose you saw "Sicko". And check out "Capitalism: A Love Story" at the movies soon.

I support universal health care, but American health care industry in collaboration with private insurance industry continues to be ass-backwards.

That's the way it is in the laissez-faire capitalist nation of USA.

As the saying goes, try not to get sick or in an accident or you'll be screwed by exorbitant medical bills that private insurer will balk at paying while stealing your monetary contribution to fatten their Swiss bank accounts.